


Ghosts

by Experiment413



Category: Wings of Fire - Tui T. Sutherland
Genre: Animus Dragons, Disease and Sickness, Gen, Ghosts, Hybrids, It's Not Paranoia If They're Really Out To Get You, Original Character(s), Post-Talons of Power, Pre-Darkness of Dragons, Some characters only mentioned, Talons of Power Spoilers, ToP Spoilers, a lot of OCs - Freeform, why is that a tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-25
Updated: 2017-01-25
Packaged: 2018-09-19 22:52:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9464081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Experiment413/pseuds/Experiment413
Summary: Something is happening to the dragons of Pyrrhia.A family fears for their lives.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> \------------ TALONS OF POWER SPOILERS! ------------  
> DON'T READ THIS IF YOU DON'T WANNA BE SPOILED/HAVEN'T READ THE LAST ~5 CHAPTERS AND EPILOGUE OF TOP.
> 
> A handful of my WoF OCs discussing the events occurring in ToP, since they live in the general timeframe as canon.

Hypothermia and Puffin had fallen ill. It was strange to see them pressed together, wings wrapped around each other, coughing and hacking and wheezing the smallest puffs of cold air. Thalassophobia had even returned to help take care of Hypo and her brother.  
  
He’d told Sparrow and Lionfish he’d been hauled, literally out of thin air, to a castle tons of miles away from his home between the rainforest and the Sea Kingdom. There had been two other SeaWings- Princess Anemone, and a little green one, he’d said. There was a SandWing who vanished within seconds (like he did too), as well as a huge NightWing encased in stone. They had stood before a big NightWing, with dark blue scales. Bloodchains had flinched when she heard that, and she left the room quickly.  
He said he had a spell on himself to keep him unknown and invisible to other Animuses, and that was how he escaped so fast. Lionfish was happy her dad had made it out with his talons intact.  
  
Fear ran the land of Pyrrhia wild. IceWings started falling sick, the nearby SandWing towns were bombed, and SeaWings were saying the ghost of Albatross was haunting them.  
The group cowered, safe, they knew, in Venom’s cave. His scavenger Blossom clung to his warm scales constantly now, like even she was afraid.  
  
Lionfish had no clue what was happening. She nuzzled under her mother’s wing, comforting her in her sickness, their cold white scales shining against each other. Sparrow approached her, his wings drooping.  
“I’m thinking of going back home for a while,” he said. Though honestly, this was his home. He did grow up here with Lionfish. “I’m scared for Asteroid and Aether. I don’t know what’s going to happen to us.”  
“It’s payback,” Hypothermia wheezed, gripping Puffin and Lionfish tighter in her wings.  
“For what?” Lionfish asked, turning her head to look at her mother.  
  
Hypothermia waited. She took long, wheezing breaths. “For the war. It’s a remnant. I’m sure, it’s the war coming to haunt us.”  
“It isn’t Albatross?” Lionfish asked again. Her mom nodded.  
“I’m positive it’s ghosts, though. Dragons who-” She coughed violently. Puffin shivered. “Dragons who died in the war. They’re getting revenge."  
  
Bloodchains came in, a pack of crushed ice in her hands, and she slung it to Puffin and Hypothermia.  
“Thank you,” Lionfish heard her uncle wheeze quietly. He shoved his light blue head into the pack.  
“Dad,” Lionfish said. Thala turned his head to look at her. She could tell he was scared. The way his claws shook and the gentleness in his eyes mixing with concern when he looked at her.  
“What is it?”  
“Is mom right?”  
He laughed quietly. “She was always smarter than me. I’d like to assume she’s right.”  
“You’re too sweet,” Hypothermia said. “Why did we fall in love again?”  
“Because I’m a fool who flies to the Ice Kingdom alone and gets found by a royal guard after passing out in the snow.”  
  
Lionfish loved to hear the stories, now that she’d discovered that Hypothermia and Thalassophobia were her parents all along. She was so happy to see the way they gazed at each other. They hadn’t seen each other for years, and Thala hadn’t seen his own dragonet since the day she was laid so many years ago.  
But it explained things to Lionfish. She had her family, and it was all she wanted.  
  
Sparrow eyed Thala. When he turned his head to the SkyWing, he nodded.  
“Where have Obsidian and Moon been?” he blurted. Concern for his friends, that was normal. Obsidianseeker and his little sister Mooncrusher had vanished about a month ago, to the Rain Kingdom, they’d said. It was where their tribe had moved, and Bloodchains decided that Obsidian could take care of himself and his sister now, so it was fine to let them go.  
“I hope they’re not dead,” Lionfish said. She missed Moon, she was the only other female dragonet of the group. Venom walked in, Blossom nervously clinging to the plates on his leg.  
  
“I heard the NightWings moved,” he began.  
Thala nodded. “It probably makes sense. Bloodchains, do you have any idea where they could’ve gone?”  
The NightWing froze. “I’ll ask Queen Glory,” she said. “I have an idea where they could’ve gone, though. The disaster hasn’t struck us, as far as I know. Venom, stay with everybody, okay?”  
He nodded as Bloodchains continued. “You too, Thala. Make sure nothing happens to Lionfish.”  
She turned tail, soaring out of the cave, into the hot sun of the desert.  
  
“Why is she so suspicious of me,” said Thala. He asked that a lot, he knew the answer.  
“Because I was her dragonet for a while,” said Lionfish, as she normally did. “Sparrow was hers too!”  
Venom and Hypothermia laughed.  
“You two were so lively when you were younger,” Venom said. He laid down with the others. “You almost drove me and Bloodchains mad.”  
“Not much I could do with an egg I knew was a hybrid. I trusted Venom and Bloodchains with you, you know?” Hypothermia added.  
“I know,” said Lionfish. “But now I got four parents! How fun is that!”  
“Weirdest family ever,” Sparrow said. He laughed, which he never did a lot. “Three NightWings, two IceWings, a SeaWing animus, a SandWing and his scavenger, a SkyWing and an Ice/Sea hybrid. Weirdest. Family.”  
“You got your siblings, though, don’t you, Sparrow?” Venom asked.  
“I still don’t know them well enough. Asteroid is nice and all, Aether is nervous he’ll hurt me with his firescales. That’s all I really know.” He edged near the opening of the cave. “I should really go visit them.”  
“When Bloodchains comes back. Until then, you stay here,” Venom said. “It’s not safe.”  
“Fine.”  
  
Hypothermia nudged Lionfish away suddenly.  
“I don’t know if you can get sick too because you’re half IceWing. But if you can cross over the wall, I’m sure you can.”  
“I feel fine, mom.”  
“Shhh. Go with your dad.” She nudged Lionfish harder, in the direction of Thala.  
“Hey sweet girl,” he said, opening his wings to hug her.


	2. Chapter 2

“I knew it,” Bloodchains was saying.  
Lionfish rubbed her eyes with her wing. Their voices were hushed, though Hypothermia occasionally coughed.  
“That’s horrible, three moons.” Venom was eyeing the scrolls on the table. Obsidianseeker was back, sitting around the table with the other adults (and his sister), looking exhausted. Mooncrusher had fallen asleep with her chin on the table.  
Hypothermia and Puffin picked through scrolls, skimming their contents. Thalassophobia leaned into Hypo’s side, reading off her scroll.  
“What are we going to do,” Bloodchains said. “This is terrible. Is this why we all feel awful?”  
“Ghosts,” muttered Hypothermia. “I knew it was ghosts.”  
“But he’s alive,” Bloodchains argued.  
“But he’s still a ghost. A ghost of the past, among us, breathing and thinking and terrorizing. He shouldn’t be here.”  
“He was huge. A giant, dark blue-gray NightWing, it looked like his eyes could stare into people’s souls. There was hardly anything of his own soul left, I could tell,” said Thala.  
  
Lionfish had no choice.  
“What’s going on?” she whispered, stepping into the dim firelight.  
“Lion,” said Bloodchains. “You should be asleep.”  
“Shush.” Venom hit her lightly with his wing. “Let her listen. She deserves to know what’s going on. Go, Lion, get Sparrow, will you.”  
She nodded, going off into her and Sparrow’s bedroom-esque cave, and waking up the exhausted SkyWing.  
  
“What, what,” he said, being shaken awake.  
“Things are happening,” she said. “Come on.”  
“Lion, I wanna sleep.”  
“No time for sleeping. Come on!”  
  
She pushed him into the main cave, where his eyes widened at the amount of scrolls.  
“Bloodchains, are these yours?”  
“Most of them. The rest are Obsidian and Moon’s.”  
He picked one up and opened it. Lionfish looked over at it. “The Legend of the Darkstalker,” he read. “Are you sure this isn’t a myth?” He lowered it to look at the grayscale NightWing.  
“I’m sure,” she said. “He’s real. He’s real and he’s alive, he’s made a new kingdom for the NightWings, and he’s an animus. The most evil animus in history.”  
“More than Albatross?” asked Lionfish.  
“More than Albatross.”  
  
“He’s back. I’m starting to understand things.”  
Bloodchains stood up and began to pace. She was part of a series of NightWing myths herself, Bloodchains the hero, as opposed to what she really was, Bloodchains the mistreated and abused. Lionfish trusted her with every white and gray scale on her body, and all the glow her lights could muster.  
  
“He hates IceWings. All the IceWings are falling sick. He hates SeaWings. The SeaWings are being terrorized.”  
“But what about the SandWings?” asked Venom. It was his own tribe, he was scared.  
“I don’t know about them, there’s nothing in the stories about SandWings.”  
“There was a SandWing with me when we got summoned,” said Thala. “They vanished instantly, like how I left so quickly. Maybe that’s why?”  
Venom shrugged, staring at the scrolls. Blossom had woken up from the chatter and crawled up Lionfish’s neck and head, peering over at the big scrolls. She couldn’t read them, right?  
  
“Something is happening,” said Bloodchains. “We don’t know what it is, but I know that it’s the doing of the Darkstalker.”


End file.
